HMS Hector vs. Belle Poule

The Action of 13 May 1792 took place off the coast of Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti) during the Napoleonic Wars when French 80-gun steam ship "Belle Poule" attacked British 122-gun Heavy First Rate HMS Hector, which was raiding commerce. The French admiral was killed, but the British boarding crew was eventually forced to surrender.

Background
The British ship HMS Hector was one of the largest ships in the Royal Navy, a 122-gun Heavy First Rate constructed in Liverpool and put into service against French commerce in the West Indies. Meanwhile, Captain Pierre-Thiery Clarisse's 80-gun steam ship "Belle Poule" was constructed in Le Havre in 1800, a much sleeker vessel meant to protect commerce. Inevitably, the two ships met in battle off the French colony of Saint-Domingue on 13 May 1802.

Battle
The British ship had much more firepower and opened fire first, gaining the advantage. HMS Hector fired grapeshot in hopes of killing the French crew off to enable the capture of the French ship, but the French ship fired as the hulking HMS Hector moved in to board. At the time that HMS Hector began to board the French ship, it caught on fire and the crew began to suffer serious casualties. HMS Hector's crew succeeded in killing Captain Clarisse on the top deck of the ship, but they failed to defeat the rest of the crew, despite superior numbers and having morale advantage. In the end, the British boarding crew surrendered and the French won the day.